Christmas time is here...

Okay, so maybe it's not here exactly yet, but I'm hunkering down in preparation for it here at my house =) It's my favorite time of the year, and before our house was built, I set a goal for myself for this season, that I would set up a beautiful tree, and decorate for the holidays. And I'm happy to report that I am in full swing of doing just that!

I got an awesome deal on a fake tree yesterday at Target - $80.00 for a pre-lit...1 month before Christmas...amidst all the crazy shoppers!! We didn't have a tree already, real trees are out of the question because we have dogs, and lots of people suggested looking on craigslist, but I didn't feel like dealing with that! So once again, Target rescued me. Speaking of, so did Hobby Lobby later yesterday evening as I dragged my husband in just before closing so I could purchase our first ever ornaments!! (Mind you, this is the second time in 3 days I've made him go there with me. The first was so I could get some items to make my first ever wreath, which I will tell you about later.) Anyhow, we got our ornaments, made it to check out in time, and raced home so I could put everything together immediately. It probably could have waited until today, seeing as how we have much more time, but I couldn't help myself. I just get so stinking excited! So without further ado, fix your eyes upon Mr. & Mrs. Moore's first ever blessed Christmas tree:



I know it's not the best picture, but there it is! I still need a tree skirt, but I refuse to pay what stores want for them. I'm actually looking into making one, since I've discovered that I am more crafty than I give myself credit for...

Which brings me to my other project. I have been wanting to make a wreath for so long, and I've tried my hand at it once or twice, but it always ended in disaster. My previous creations were never worthy enough to grace anyone's door! So I started looking into my options again, and decided that I wanted to steer clear of the traditional wreath look. I stumbled upon a blog recently, and fell in love with what this woman had created. So I basically copied her creation, changing the colors a bit, and adding my own little twist here and there. I give her credit for this idea! I did not come up with it! You can see her blog post about it here. And now, feast your eyes upon what I ended up with:



It took me about 5 hours worth of work, but I could not be happier with the result. I was so proud of myself, I just sat and stared for a while once it was done. I know it sounds dorky, but I've never made anything so beautiful. I know it was not my idea, but still, I made it with my very own hands, and a few of my own little touches. So now, it adorns our media console so that we get an eyeful of it every day. And to that, I say: I don't need your $100.00 wreath, Hobby Lobby. I just need your craft supplies =)

Some of my next projects shall include a tree skirt, table setting, and something to sit on our plant ledges. Somebody get me a craft box!! ;)

Holiday stuff...

Lots of things happening around here! November has been a crazy busy month for the husband and I, and blogging has unfortunately been put on the back burner. I have a feeling that's the way it's gonna have to be during this holiday season. It's difficult for me to put thoughts together when so many things are going on.

November for the Moore's has consisted, and will consist of the following:

*Jeremy got a new job
*Purchased a new used vehicle (he desperately needed)
*Went on an early anniversary vacation to the mountains
*I began volunteering at a free health clinic in town (which, holy crap, I was supposed to be present at 30 minutes ago..Well there's a great way to start out!)
*Leaving to go to Jacksonville next week for Thanksgiving
*Plotting my plans for my homemade Christmas gifts (which I also did last year, and I saved so much money and was so proud of my new-found craftiness, I decided to go at it again this year)

Okay, so it doesn't look as whirlwind-ish on screen, but add that to all the other daily things, and my heart starts to race a little. The two out of town trips are the kickers for us. But, however, this kind of business is my favorite kind. I love the upcoming holidays. I love the decor, the foods, the smells, the time spent with family and friends, all the different coffees =) Makes for a happy me.

As wonderful as they are, holidays can be difficult, though, for Jeremy and I (well more so me, but I know it's difficult for him in a different way). Anyone who has ever waited for a baby knows the familiar ache I'm talking about. Lots of babies are having their very first Thanksgiving, and Christmas, and New Years...opening their very first present, or wearing their way-too-cute, specially bought Christmas dresses or little man suits. We watch it happening all around us. It's so special, and I'm grateful to be able to witness the little lives around me, but that empty place inside cries out especially during these times.

And so I welcome the business. It sort of takes my mind off those things, and allows me to focus on what we do have. We'll be celebrating our 2 year wedding anniversary next month, right before Christmas, and we'll be celebrating for the first time in our new home. We'll have our first Christmas tree together, and I plan to soak up every second of time together, decorating, cooking, and making memories that one day we will get to share with a tiny little thing, swaddled up tightly in a warm snowman blankie...maybe even wearing the worlds tiniest Mr. or Mrs. Claus suit...and I may or may not have a cd player blaring Christmas tunes from said little one's nursery...and I may or may not have plans to dress us all in holiday sweaters and have professional photos taken..and those photos may or may not grace our entry way...

Ok, so I got a little carried away..

Anyway, we don't know if that's what Christmas will look like for us when we have a baby, but my point is, hubby and I have to make the most of these times so that one day when our child is with us, we look back on happy times of Mom and Dad together. For us, as I've said before, that doesn't mean the ache isn't there. We just have to choose for ourselves what the best way to deal with that ache is...and for us that means to hold each other close, and love each other more than ever.

Hannah's Prayer...

I love the story of Hannah in the Bible. Although I cannot relate to what it's like for my husband to have a second wife, or what it feels like to be taunted by that second wife about not having children while she boasts of the ones she has, I feel her pain as I read her cries to God. I can relate to that. So many of us can relate. But Hannah's story is one of triumph. God gave her a son, Samuel. And in the midst of her rejoicing, she poured out this prayer of thanks to God:

I Samuel 2:
"Hannah prayed:
I'm bursting with God-news!
I'm walking on air. I'm laughing at my rivals. I'm dancing my salvation."

"Nothing and no one is holy like God, no rock mountain like our God.
Don't dare talk pretentiously - not a word of boasting, ever!
For God knows what is going on. He takes the measure of everything that happens.
The weapons of the strong are smashed to pieces, while the weak are infused with fresh strength.
The well-fed are out begging in the streets for crusts, while the hungry are getting second helpings.
The barren woman has a houseful of children, while the mother of many is bereft."

"God brings death and God brings life, brings down to the grave and raises up.
God brings poverty and God brings wealth; he lowers, he also lifts up.
He puts poor people on their feet again;
he rekindles burned-out lives with fresh hope,
Restoring dignity and respect to their lives - a place in the sun!
For the very structures of earth are God's; he has laid out his operations on a firm foundation.
He protectively cares for his faithful friends, step by step, but leaves the wicked to stumble in the dark.
No one makes it in this life by sheer muscle!
God's enemies will be blasted out of the sky, crashed in a heap and burned.
God will set things right all over the earth, he'll give strength to his king,
He'll set his anointed on top of the world!"




In this season of waiting, I feel like I'm being prepped by God. It's like He is completely taking over my heart, my mind, and He's making this story into what He's always meant for it to be. This isn't my story to write. One day, when I stand with my child, it will be a testament to the fact that God is always faithful. My child will be a living testament of a miraculous, and Living God. He never stops being faithful, even in our waiting. He didn't stop being faithful to Hannah, or Sarah, or Rebekah, or Rachel, or Samson's mother, or Elizabeth, or the Shunammite woman...He remained true to who He always said He was. Who He still is!
When God decides to bless us with a child, I pray I am bursting with God-news like Hannah did! I pray I am bursting at the seams with even just an ounce of the gratefulness she had towards God. And in my waiting, I will cry out to Him, and I will wait expectantly for what I know He is going to do. I will let Him fill me and be the substance that makes who I am.


"He gives childless couples a family, gives them joy as the parents of children."
Psalm 113:9

I've been following this blog for a while now, and I am continually inspired by this family's faith and perseverance through the journey they are on. I won't go into details of their story here, although I will encourage you to read for yourself and pray for them and their little boy, Bowen.

I read this post this morning, and couldn't help but to re-post the scripture they shared. It gives some insight and meaning to that familiar Sunday school song many of us sang when we were younger: "Father Abraham had many sons, many sons had Father Abraham. I am one of them, and so are you, so let's just praise the Lord..." You know the one?

So a few directions:
1. Read this post

2. Think of those familiar lyrics

3. Read and meditate on Romans 4:16-25 (particularly the Message version), and then thank God for such a powerful word!

"This is why the fulfillment of God's promise depends entirely on trusting God and His way, and then simply embracing Him and what He does. God's promise arrives as pure gift. That's the only way everyone can be sure to get in on it, those who keep the religious traditions and those who have never heard of them. For Abraham is father of us all. He is not our racial father - that's reading the story backwards. He is our faith father."

"We call Abraham "father" not because he got God's attention by living like a saint, but because God made something out of Abraham when he was a nobody."..continued...

"Abraham was first named 'father' and then became a father because he dared to trust God to do what only God could do: raise the dead to life, with a word make something out of nothing. When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn't do but on what God said he would do. And so he was made father of a multitude of peoples."..continued...

"Abraham didn't focus on his own impotence and say, 'It's hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could never father a child.' Nor did he survey Sarah's decades of infertility and give up. He didn't tiptoe around God's promise asking cautiously skeptical questions. He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready for God, sure that God would make good on what he had said."...continued...

"Abraham was declared fit before God by trusting God to set him right." But it's not just Abraham; it's also us! The same thing gets said about us when we embrace and believe the One who brought Jesus to life when the conditions were equally hopeless. The sacrificed Jesus made us fit for God, set us right with God.


I love it and hope you do too!
Be blessed today!

Isaiah 32

I had a sweet message this morning waiting for me on my phone. It was a message of encouragement to me, referencing Isaiah 32. It's one of my favorite books in the Bible because I feel so challenged and motivated when I read, and this scripture really got my attention this morning.

It's a call to the women of Jerusalem to prepare for the coming of the Holy Spirit. It's basically calling them to give up their lives of complacency because the righteous King was coming to disturb their land. This scripture paints a scary image of what they were about to endure, but I'm sure it was a great lesson of what it really means to trust in the Lord. God was about to take them through some serious desert times, and a season of real mourning, but it was all in order to prepare them for the outpouring of His Spirit. And you see, that's the good part! Because you know what happens when the Lord lavishes His Spirit upon us? The things barren and desolate before will then become full of life and fruitful. And I love that! I need that! We all do.

So take a minute and read Isaiah 32:9-20 this morning. The NIV is great, but the following is from The Message:

"Take your stand, indolent woman!
Listen to me!
Indulgent, indolent woman, listen closely to what I have to say.
In just a little over a year from now, you'll be shaken out of your lazy lives.
The grape harvest will fail, and there'll be no more fruit on the trees.
Oh tremble, you indolent women. Get serious, you pampered dolls!
Strip down and discard your silk fineries. Put on funeral clothes.
Shed honest tears for the lost harvest, the failed vintage.
Weep for my people's gardens and farms that grow nothing but thistles and thornbushes.
Cry tears, real tears, for the happy homes no longer happy, the merry city no longer merry.
The royal palace is deserted,
the bustling city quiet as a morgue, The emptied parks and playgrounds
taken over by wild animals, delighted with their new home.
Yes, weep and grieve until the Spirit is poured down on us from above
And the badlands desert grows crops and the fertile fields become forests.
Justice will move into the badlands desert. Right will build a home in the fertile field.
And where there's Right, there'll be Peace
and the progeny of Right: quiet lives and endless trust.
My people will live in a peaceful neighborhood - in safe houses, in quiet gardens.
The forest of your pride will be clear-cut,the city showing off your power leveled.
But you will enjoy a blessed life, planting well-watered fields and gardens,
with your farm animals grazing freely."


I hope you've been as encouraged by this scripture as I am. Lets lift our heads today and know that this isn't just a cliche message of "everything happens for a reason..", but a true message and promise from God that He hasn't left us. Let us prepare ourselves for the outpouring of His Spirit, and trust Him that He is going to bless our lives.

It's gonna be alright...

Allowing people in, and sharing the details of the journeys we're on can be good and bad:

Good: to have an army of people surrounding you who support, love and pray for you,

-And-

Bad: there will always be those people who ask probing questions, insert their opinions without being asked, and forget to use their verbal filters when making unnecessary statements in your presence.

Obviously, I prefer not to deal with the latter, but I know and understand it's all part of the process. I would venture to say that I deal with those people better now than I did in the beginning. I will go even a step further and say that I appreciate them.

I had someone ask me yesterday how things are going for Jeremy and I (you know, "baby-wise"), and if we had given up hope. Even though I was annoyed with the way the questions were phrased at first, I welcomed the conversation. It felt good to talk about things. I was thankful that God let us cross paths yesterday, and even thankful for the awkward way such a very personal conversation came about. I think both parties learned some things:

For the other person, I think it taught them that unless you are, in some way, relationally close with someone struggling with fertility, starting conversation with questions like the above is probably not the most appropriate way. It can make for an uncomfortable environment, it can be off-putting, and could possibly offend.

For me, it sort of reaffirmed that where my husband and I are in this process is okay. It's kind of at a stand still (we have medical options that we are not supposed to go through with right now), and we know that is exactly where God wants us. We are taking this time and strengthening our relationships with the Lord, and with one another. The longing and desire is still evident as ever, but we also know that we have a beautiful future with children on the horizon. We still pray and ask God for our miracle baby, but we are content in knowing that He hears our cries and has already answered our prayers...but our answer doesn't always look like His answer. We rest in knowing that God is bigger than this. Bigger than we can ever understand. And yes, we still have hope. Everyday we have hope. And everyday we have to choose to lift our eyes unto the hills and declare where our true hope comes from in order not to lose our hope.

It was good for me to re-evaluate some things yesterday. It helped to hear myself say it. Sometimes, if things aren't happening, it's hard to keep focused on the fact that it's okay. And then one of those people come along and stir up the dust. You might be annoyed at first, but you might also walk away with a calming peace that has just reminded you once again that it's all gonna work out.


"So we're not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There's far more than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can't see now will last forever." II Corinthians 4:16-18 (The MSG)

Hallelujah...

I don't know what to write. Sometimes a song speaks more than a blog post.



Who can hold the stars
And my weary heart?
Who can see everything?

I've fallen so hard
Sometimes I feel so far
But not beyond your reach

I could climb a mountain
Swim the ocean
Or do anything
But it's when you hold me
That I start unfolding
And all I can say is

Hallelujah, hallelujah
Whatever's in front of me
Help me to sing hallelujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah
Whatever's in front of me
I'll choose to sing hallelujah

The same sun that
Rises over castles
And welcomes the day

Spills over buildings
Into the streets
Where orphans play

And only you can see the good
In broken things
You took my heart of stone
And you made it home
And set this prisoner free

Hallelujah, hallelujah
Whatever's in front of me
Help me to sing hallelujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah
Whatever's in front of me
I'll choose to sing hallelujah
~Hallelujah by Bethany Dillon